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Screenshot of booty by ana carrete from NewHive.
NewHive is a new service for creative expression online. Founded by Zach Verdin, Cara Buccifero, Andrew Sorkin (who later left the company), and Abram Clark in Seattle, the company launched in private beta in November 2011 with the public launch in 2012. The website describes itself as a "blank canvas" for expression on the web, offering users a drag-and-drop interface to construct anything they like, within the confines of a browser.
This year has seen certain communities gravitate towards the site, with the new issue of poetry journal Pop Serial being built entirely on NewHive, and a visual mixtape featuring original tracks from a number of musicians launching in September. I'm interested in NewHive, and I like a lot of things that are made on it. I'm particularly interested in the alt lit community's attraction to it, perhaps because it is a convenient platform for people working with text to explore their practice in increasingly visual or hybrid ways. At the same time, I'm skeptical of its claim to be a "blank canvas," which obfuscates the aesthetic and political assumptions that it—that any cultural interface—reproduces.


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A fiftysomething insurance salesman takes an intense interest in Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign after experiencing a health scare that prompts him to reassess his priorities in life. Concerned that he doesn't have much time left and convinced that Obama's inspirational message of change is genuine, John Thomas (director/co-writer Charles S. Dutton) hides his recent heart attack from his loving wife Molly (Vanessa Bell Calloway) and reconnects with his staunchly Republican relative MLK (Katt Williams). Meanwhile, John's three children have their own issues to contend with: His rebellious son Kalil (Wesley Jonathan) lashes out by joining the Republican Party; his engaged daughter Tamika (Meagan Good) pleads for her father's support as her wedding approaches; and his other son Jamel (Zab Judah) -- a promising pugilist -- finds his career hindered by a shady manager (Glynn Turman). In addition, John's brother (C.J. Mack) seeks to turn over a new leaf after making parole, and upon learning about her husband's failing health Molly urges John to focus on the things that really matter in life. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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subset: commoncrawl


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Minnesota liberalized the law allowing citizens to arm themselves in the early days of the administration of Governor Pawlenty. The law vastly expanded the right of Minnesota citizens to acquire licenses to carry guns, a right formerly subject to the unfettered discretion of local police chiefs or sheriffs. Liberalization of the law carried out a long-standing Republican commitment and was of course the subject of daily hysteria in the local media, but so far as I am aware has had no ill effects.
The virtues of the law were on display last week. When Darren Evanovich and his sister pulled off an armed robbery outside of a grocery store in Minneapolis, they wound up pistol-whipping the middle-aged woman they robbed. As Ed Morrissey relates, a good citizen (Ed refers to him as the Good Samritan) chased after Evanovich, and Evanovich pulled a gun on him as he turned the corner. "Unfortunately for Evanovich," Ed writes, "the Good Samaritan had a carry permit and a handgun of his own — which he drew and fired after Evanovich drew first. Evanovich died almost immediately."
Evanovich's death raised the question whether the Good Samaritan would be charged with homicide. While the case was under consideration, the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a deeply deceptive article by Matt McKinney on the good works of Darren Evanovich. The article omitted relevant facts that made out the justification for Evanovich's killing.
If you relied on the article for your knowledge about the case, as I stupidly did, you were poorly served. Mitch Berg took it apart on his Shot In the Dark blog. If you relied on the Star Tribune for your knowledge about the case, you would have been surprised, as I was, when (liberal Democratic) Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman not only declined to press charges against the Good Samaritan, but he also commended the Good Samaritan "for helping his fellow citizen in need" (while adding "a note of caution" discouraging armed citizens from chasing after criminals.)
The Star Tribune's coverage of the Evanovich case provides evidence to support the proposition that liberalism makes you stupid, or requires you to be stupid. I think it is true as a general proposition. Yet in this case we have the counterexample of Mike Freeman — not stupid. At the very least, the case is a good reminder that the Star Tribune gives new meaning to the expression "the gang that couldn't shoot straight."


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Personalized, one-on-one instruction is the secret to improved skills and increased confidence. CoachUp now makes private mental skills training coaching affordable and convenient for athletes of all ages and skill levels.
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Student wakes to find two strangers inside home
Man arrested nearby carrying loaded handgun
MADISON, Wis. — Police said one of two suspected burglars was arrested Thursday after a UW-Madison student's home was robbed.
Christopher Mason, 31, of Madison, was arrested on suspicion of burglary, a felon in possession of a firearm and a probation hold.
According to the report, a 22-year-old man told police just before 8 p.m., he woke up on his couch to find two strangers — one of them Mason — in his downtown house on the 400 block of West Doty Street.
Police said Mason and the other man told the student they were looking for "Chris;" the student told the trespassers to leave. The student called police, who were able to locate Mason alongside a nearby building.
Mason told the officer he was at the apartment to watch the men's Badger basketball game at his friend Chad's house, who he thought lived at the student's home, according to the report. Police said Mason told them he and his accomplice had intended to get drunk and have physical relationships with unknown women that evening. The officer told Mason there was no basketball game that night and the game had already taken place Wednesday.
Police said they found the student victim's wallet near the suspect and a loaded handgun in the backpack Mason was wearing.
The second suspect remains at large and the stolen laptop have not been found, police added.


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WCF Web APis: "There's a URI for That"
Web application developers today are facing new challenges around how to expose data and services. The cloud, move to devices, and shift toward browsers are all placing increasing demands on surfacing such functionality in a web-friendly manner. WCF's Web API makes it easy for developers to expose their services and data to a broad set of clients and to take advantage of rich emerging web standards like Web Sockets.
Download:Slides View Slides Online
Right click or Alt+Enter to download this episode
- High Quality WMV (1.0 GB)
- High Quality MP4 (869.5 MB)
The Discussion
waiting for it...
Hi guys
I'd love to know what you'd like to see here. Current plans are to start with a hello resource type of thing and build it out throughout the talk. Along the way we can look at various different capabilities of our web api and explore what the experience looks like.
Would like to see progression from URI tunneling, CRUD based rest to a real hypermedia-driven example and where the new API's help use. The previous Preview kit 2 was a baby step in the right direction.
@Glenn Block:that would be nice to see some insert operation with http POST (the clinet could be a console app) I remembered that some guy sent a xml file to a service url by making http post with console app and that action added the content to database. the console line code was something like below;
-MakePostWithXML c:\files\XmlContent.xml
this little line made the magic (magic would not be the right word but )
Also, a demo on how to securing the APIs would be great. (not kind of open source APIs but more like for e-commerce APIs. for B2B actions)
These are my requests and looking forward to talk to see what will happen thanks !
guys, you pulled the video for some edits as far as I heard you made me worried get it back please... please...
OK all, I've posted the video for the time being on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/22504747
@Glenn Block: cool. thanks.
VectorD I know you wanted to see a hypermedia example. I intended to show a links and forms demo but there was not enough time. I will work on getting my original idea up on my blog and our codeplex samples.
Would be interesting to know what edits are being made and to get an ETA on when we should expect the video back?
Thanks in advance.
still waiting for the video
Video is working for me although the fast foward doesn't seem to be working. The player starts to buffer the video and never plays again. I'll just have watch from the beginning again. That Vimeo version had horrendous PQ.
One hour is not enough time to do it justice. Just keep on with the good work and blogging. Looking forward to the new API's.


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The acquisition of Kentwan Balmer and trade of Lawrence Jackson have led to numerous conversations about why one first round bust would be any more desirable than another. I found myself explaining the Seahawks new scheme to a few people, and though the rest of you may find it valuable as well.
- The SAM LB often plays off the line of scrimmage in a 4-3. The Seahawks will play our SAM (Aaron Curry) right on the line of scrimmage almost every down.
- The strongside DE is usually asked to do the same thing as the weakside DE. We will feature a strongside DE that plays more like a DT. Instead of rushing the passer or shedding blocks, Red Bryant will be asked to occupy both the TE and the RT to free up our SAM.
- Our weakside DE, called a LEO in this defense, will be a constant pass rusher.


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This was published 7 years ago
Gina the star in Bald Archy portraits
Women, breathe easy. The creator and director of the Bald Archy Prize, Peter Batey, said there was "nothing misogynist" about the comic portrait competition.
And, he said, "There's no censorship applied whatsoever."
Women have equal opportunity to be lampooned, and this year Prime Minister Julia Gillard and - especially - mining magnate Gina Rinehart were among the most prominent subjects. Rinehart turned up in various guises including a vampire and a Gone With the Wind-style southern belle and in a sinister-looking take on Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama poster that replaced the word "Hope" with "Mine".
Among the men, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Treasurer Wayne Swan were popular subjects. Russell Crowe made an appearance as his Les Miserables character Javert in There's No Business Like Crowe Business.
This year marks two significant anniversaries for the Bald Archy Prize: it turns 20, and Batey - a longtime actor, director and theatre administrator - turns 80.
Batey expressed amazement at the longevity and ever-increasing popularity of the comic portrait competition, which began as part of the Coolac Festival of Fun as a dig at the Archibald Prize. "It was only meant to be a little village joke," Batey said.
He was poking fun at the idea that art can be judged - "What do they do? give points for the frame, eyes, background?" - and instead of a panel of judges, the Bald Archy winner is chosen each year by a mysterious -and remarkably long-lived - cockatoo named Maude.
"She's still going strong," Batey said.
The Bald Archy Prize has regularly gone on to attract national and even international attention.
Canberra has hosted the touring exhibition for most of the time it has been running, first in Tuggeranong Arts Centre and then in Watson Arts Centre.
"Canberrans are a most enthusiastic audience - I know they're waiting for it each year."
Batey has each of the winners for the first two decades and while he hoped the Bald Archy Prize would go on "forever, I hope" he was thinking of donating the body of work to an institution.
"As far as I'm concerned it should be the National Portrait Gallery," he said.
"It's a very interesting and eccentric collection that provides a snapshot of social and political events over the last 20 years."
The 2013 Bald Archy Prize is on at Watson Arts Centre, 1 Aspinall Street, Watson, Canberra, from February 8 to March 11. Open daily from 10am to 4pm. Website: baldarchy.com.au
Ron Cerabona is an arts reporter for The Canberra Times.


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One day God stopped over in Amsterdam
Monday, March 03, 2008
and created the Beertender. It takes those Heineken kegs that you get from the grocery store and makes them even more amazing.
Our anniversary is on Thursday and I believe the fourth anniversary is the frivolous, over-indulgent, binge-inducing, Dutch invention anniversary. Well, I think that's all I need to say about that.
I hear from other folks that the Beertender is amazing and everybody knows how much I love Dutch beer. I think it also doubles as a nanny. With that said, why is it that I love Heineken on some days and think that it tastes like <insert word meaning putrid or rank here> on others?
I'm sure that it will taste wonderful everyday with the Beertender serving it up.
Posted by OH Bee Juan at 11:25 AM
Labels: beer Heineken draft tap keg
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text:
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text:
Yesterday I was able to make my first video DVD. This was a huge accomplishment for me.
I have a PC: 2GB RAM, Core 2 Duo processor, the cheapest NVidia video card for Vista, and Windows Vista Ultimate. Last year I had purchased and installed a TV tuner card, the Hauppauge HVR1600. We don't have cable. The card allows me to grab digital TV signals over the air (OTA).
Anyhow, the antenna signal comes through a cable which I connect to the tuner card. In Vista, I go to Media Center then I think I had to go to "Tasks" then "Settings" and somehow get it going on recognizing the TV tuner card. Once that's done, I as able to recive TV signals in Media Center and program the computer to record certain shows for me. The programming is like "record this show" -- I don't know if I can program it to record at xx time, xx channel. Anyhow, the programing by show worked ok for me.
Media Center records in dvr-ms format. The tricky part for me was finding where the recording went. It's in c:\Users\Public\Recorded TV. Once I knew that, I can open Windows Movie Maker (it came with Vista Ultimate), select to import video then go find the recording and import it. With Windows Movie Maker I can cut out segments of video if I wanted to. In this case I did because what I wanted on DVD totaled 4 hr 5 min. I wanted it less than 4hrs so that I can be sure I didn't have any problems fitting it on 2 DVD's. Windows Movie Maker also allowed me to combine the 1hr video with the 3hr video, and then split it at the "2hr" (or wherever you want to split it) mark. So I ended up with two projects - the first half for the first disk and the second half for the second disk. Once I finish messing with the video - and save it, I select the "publish to DVD" option.
Up comes a message that says it will close the project and open Windows DVD Maker. Select OK and Windows DVD Maker comes up. It had options for creating menus but I didn't mess with any of that. I went with the default and went on to the option to burn DVD. Some several hours later (go away, do something else), the first DVD is finished. I repeat in Windows Movie Maker for the second half - "publish to DVD." It will prompt to close Windows DVD Maker, after which it will re-open with the new project. Go through the same process and several hours later, the second half DVD is produced.
Voila. Digital OTA TV to video DVD.
I did save the project each time, hoping that it won't go through the several-hours long conversion the next time I want to burn a copy. I haven't test this.
I did have an audio sync problem with one of the clips, but it sync'd back up at the next clip. There is a way to shift the audio clip relative to the video, but I didn't mess with that this time around.
Media Center interface is cryptic to me. It's weird and takes some getting used to. But video quality was excellent, and the recording seemed reliable (no stopping at random, it recorded at the designated time, and no time was lost in resetting between recordings). Overall, it went smooth except for having to find where the recording went. Next I will have to figure out which files I need to keep: I now have the original recordings of the two shows, three Win Movie Maker files (the whole shebang and then the split 1st and 2nd projects), and two Win DVD Maker projects.
video success
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Yesterday I was able to make my first video DVD. This was a huge accomplishment for me.
Posted by seeking_something at 9:03 AM 1 comments Links to this post
slow progress on fence
The LAMLand blog seems to have disappeared. I've waited for some time now to see if it comes back and it looks like it is not coming back.
Last week I finished taking down the fence. However, Guppy wants one of the corner posts replaced - namely the one by the gate. This post is supporting both our section and our neighbor's section and the last folks that worked on those sections did not replace the post. The folks that I've mentioned this to has told me it's going to be a real adventure (to put it nicely) to remove that post. Since I don't have the time this weekend to deal with that, I haven't started. However, I did purchase its 10-ft replacement. Getting that 10-ft pole into my car was an adventure, but I made it.
We do have some pickets that have not been installed. In other words, they've not had holes in them. I've started staining them in the few hours I can find here and there yesterday. The ones that I've had to rip off the fence will need some repair before I stain them.
Posted by seeking_something at 8:55 AM 2 comments Links to this post
party Sunday
Friday, April 11, 2008
Big weekend for the Dominican Sisters of Houston, as part of their 125th anniversary year-long celebration
It happens to coincide with the Grand Opening of a new park down town, an event which also looks like much fun.
Old news, but last week there was much ado around the new cathedral. And for good reason. Cathedrals don't sprout up every day, or even every generation; it's a very rare event. This one is located on the corner of St. Joseph and San Jacinto (St. Hyacinth). Cool, eh?
Me, I gotta fit in some time to work on taking down the fence (still). We have to go check out some boarding kennels (two in mind). It's for doggie when we take a brief trip out of town a little later.
Doggie is better. He knows the bathroom routine. He's not demanding. I try to give him playtime (on leash) every evening. I'm not demanding either; we've not worked on any commands for a long time. He's still crated much of the time. We look forward to a time when he can calmly join us, and crate will be by his own option.
Posted by seeking_something at 11:58 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Monday, April 07, 2008
Credo Christian E-cards worth checking out
link courtesy of LAMLand
Posted by seeking_something at 12:48 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: links
fence nightmare
Saturday, April 05, 2008
This is NOT how I want my fence built.
Here, you see that the fence posts are too short. Fence posts should be as tall as the fence (for this kind of fence). At least a third of the post should be in the ground to support the stresses above ground. I bet they buried at most 2ft.
Also the top rail should be 6 to 7 inches from the top of the picket. You see here that there is waaaay more than that in this construction.
Here are front and back pictures of a splice in the top rail. Looks kinda ok from the front, but from the back you can clearly see that it's sagging already.
Now we have a case of too long: the nails are too long for the 2x4 when nailing to the shorter side. But they didn't care and used the nails anyway and proceed to "knock them down." That is unacceptable.
The pickets are spaced too far. The objective is to have a privacy fence. Furthermore, with age, the pickets will shrink and the gaps will then be even larger. You see some warping already and this has been up only 1 week, though it rained practically all week.
Here's a piece of creativity. A 2x4 is ROUGHLY ripped along its length to approximate 2x2's and loosely nailed to the bottom of the rails. It's a piece of crap and really does nothing other than waste 2x4's.
I will splice 4x4's to the poles using a lap joint to bring them to proper height, though I will not correct how much of the pole is buried. I will then place a top rail at the proper height. I will move the middle rail to approximately middle. I will add proper 2x4's approx 6-7 inches from the bottom of the pickets. I will stain my wood before installation where possible. Right now I have to take the fence apart. I've spent all afternoon taking down one span of pickets. I'm having to gouge into the middle 2x4's to get at the knocked down nails. The nails to the top rail are just tearing through my pickets when I pry the pickets off. There is no other way for me to remove the pickets. I will do my best to save my pickets; I am considering wood filler of some sort. Once taken down, I will flip the 2x4's so that the gouged side will be covered by the pickets. Since the rails will all be in positioned differently from what they have here, all the mounting holes will be "new." I will use screws as that would not require a partner on the other side to counter the hammering. The neighbors will appreciate that since I'm making lots of noise in taking this fence apart. This has been a nightmare and it's going to take alot of effort to fix.
Posted by seeking_something at 7:50 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: repairs
same story: tired and busy
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
I've been absent from blogworld because I'm crazy busy, which also means sleep-deprived. The dog. The Chrism mass, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, the following sunday mass because I was up for my volunteer gig. We're still having to go to Skip's house every week to pick up mail and make sure nothing is awry. The Dominican volunteer gig is suddenly time-consuming.
We've a contractor at the house to do some repairs. The head guy and I kinda clashed this morning and they picked up and left. So I guess the correct term is we HAD a contractor. Not the first time. Years ago we let a flooring guy go and it was up to me to finish the job (which I didn't quite finish). So now the task of caulking and painting is on my plate, as well as re-doing the fence they were working on and patching where they didn't do it right. And since I get to re-do the fence, it means that I can stain the pickets before they get put up (the second time). It's going to be a real challenge to get those fence boards off the fence. I'd say my summer is cut out for me.
It's a whole story with the contractor, but I doubt you'd want to hear it.
Doggie got neutered last Friday. This week his main task is to stay calm and sedated. We have the famous "ace" pills for that.
I'm swamped at work and deadlines are just passing by. I don't think they'll let me keep missing the deadline, as in I better get that scheduled work done. Being sleep-deprived and unmotivated does not help.
We did also help a friend move this past Saturday. We provided transportation for the boxes but no labor. It wasn't much but we didn't start until after midnight (so technically it was Sunday morning) and Gumby was tripping down memory lane since the friend is moving to Gumby's old stomping grounds. We didn't get home until after 3 a.m.
Posted by seeking_something at 2:08 AM 0 comments Links to this post


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WildStyle* wrote:
Same as the year before than...Aaaaand the year before that....aaaaaaaaand the year before that. I'm not saying that it can't happen, it will at some point, but the same rumors go about every single year...If anything the cast will change, which sucks, but what can you do?
andylau-fr wrote:
After seeing the last Batsu Game and specially the ending song...
may it be the end this time? it look like.
what do you think?


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America is unraveling.
Evil is breaking out everywhere.
It's like the gates of Hell are opened and its demons are at large.
A gunman goes on a killing spree, gunning down moviegoers in a Century Theater in Aurora, Colorado. A devil-worshipping young man from an affluent upper-middle class home calmly shoots to death 20 first-graders and 6 teachers and principal of an elementary school.
Instead of putting the blame on the killers, seemingly-sane university professors, a movie producer, a popular novelist, and the former star of a popular TV show instead are behaving like foaming-at-the-mouth rabid dogs, calling for the deaths of members of a pro-2nd Amendment organization who have committed no crimes.
Violence is pandemic — in our streets, in our schools, in movie theaters, and in public transportation.
A woman riding a bus in Chicago was attacked by another rider, a man, with a sock filled with human feces. (See his image below)
She does not know her assailant.
NBC5 Chicago reports, Dec. 20, 2012:
A woman riding the Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Blue Line in Oak Park told police she was last week attacked by another passenger wielding a sock filled with human feces.
"He had a sock full of his poop on me," the 21-year-old college student told the Pioneer Press. "It was everywhere; on my face, my hair, my clothes."
The victim, requesting anonymity, said she screamed and tried to follow her attacker, but he escaped up the Austin Boulevard exit and ran northbound on Austin.
The college student, who came to Oak Park six weeks ago to live with a family and provide in-home child care, said she was riding an east-bound train from Oak Park to Chicago when she was attacked.
"The guy got on with me at [the] Oak Park [station]," she said. "I wasn't really paying attention. … "Next stop [at Austin], he throws something in my face."
Oak Park Police Commander Ladon Reynolds said officers responded by searching for the man in and around a gas station at Harrison Street, but did not find him. Reynolds said police retrieved a photo of a "person of interest" matching the description the woman and other witnesses gave. That man was videotaped on the Austin platform.
"We have photos of the offender and we're seeking to identify him," Reynolds said of images obtained from the CTA. "We've reached out to other [police] agencies and have issued a bulletin."
CTA spokesman Catherine Hosinski said the transit agency has "several high definition video cameras" at each station.
The woman, who said she has a copy of a photo of her assailant taken by a CTA security camera, described her assailant as a black man no older than mid-20s, average build, with facial hair above the mouth and on the chin. She said he wore a hooded sweatshirt and ball cap that partly obscured his face.
She expressed utter disgust and outrage. "It was like the biggest degradation I've ever [experienced]. I wish he had just hit me," she said, because she thinks that would have been less traumatic.
"The worst part is nobody had anything to wipe my face with," she said. She managed to find some newspapers before paramedics arrived. The paramedics gave her towels and water. "They really aren't prepared for a situation like that," she said.
The woman said she and her assailant never exchanged a word, and she can't understand his reason for the assault. "I don't know why he did it," she said, adding, "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have done that to a guy."
She said she still rides the CTA, but is more attentive now. "I just want people to pay attention on the train," she said. "I try to check the people around me."


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Neuroscientists have made huge breakthroughs in our understanding of the inner workings of the mind, particularly how various regions of the brain are linked to specific cognitive processes. This is powerful knowledge... and it could be headed to the battlefield.
That's the finding of a new report by the UK's Royal Society, that warns these advances in neuroscience could lead to the creation of new weapons that attack enemy forces by disabling parts of their minds. Gases or even electronic devices could be specifically targeted to take down vital regions of the brain.
There's also some real danger in the flip side of this, in which the military attempts to improve the battle-readiness of its soldiers through these types of brain hacks. They might make for better soldiers, but that could well come at the expense of the soldiers' overall health, and the panel argues there are serious ethical questions about whether such neural weaponry violates human rights.
In the video up top, panel chairperson Professor Rod Flower of Queen Mary, University of London explains the findings of the report. For a more complete picture of the future of neuroscience on the battlefield, you can check out the complete report here.
Via the Royal Society.


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State budget year will end with positive balance
State agency requests exceed money available
MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker's administration said no emergency budget bill will be necessary next year and the state is poised to end the two-year budget cycle in June with a $348 million balance.
Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch laid out the figures in a letter required under the law delivered Tuesday to Walker and members of the Legislature.
The memo said state revenues are projected to increase by 3.8 percent in the first year of the next budget which begins in July and go up 3.5 percent in the second year.
"What that means, of course, is that as we build this next budget we can plan to figure out where we want to invest those dollars rather than determine how we're going to pay off bills from past years," Huebsch said.
The revenue figures will be factors as the state enters the next two-year budget process.
"You got schools that got cut fairly significantly in the last budget. Municipalities and counties with shared revenues got cut, so there was a lot of places that were cut that are going to be coming back and looking to begin to be made whole. So lawmakers are probably going to try to balance some sort of an income tax cut with the requests," said Dale Knapp, of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
State agencies have requested $171 million more in funding than is projected to be available under the next budget.
The numbers were put together by the governor's administration, but the director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau called the estimates "reasonable."
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau will put out estimates in mid-January.
Walker will submit his budget to lawmakers in February. They are expected to pass it around June.


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One of the blessings and downfalls of writing for a music blog is the deluge of music we are lucky enough to experience. Sometimes something worthwhile gets lost in the shuffle and we don't get enough time to spend with a particular release.
Back in March when Delta Spirit's self-titled third LP came out, Oz and I both spun it a few times and had a tough time connecting. Our buddy Ryan, their manager, kept telling us to stick with it and you'll grow to love it. So I would revisit it periodically, each time enjoying a song that I didn't connect with before. As Lolla approached, I dug in again. I was looking forward to catching their set, but then as luck would have it, we set up a session with Delta Spirit. As the session drew closer, I connected deeply with the album and my anticipation grew like a 5 year old on Christmas Eve.
I grabbed my 5 year old, Hank, and headed downtown for one of the most enjoyable sessions I can remember. A number of the folks were there and everybody was in a great mood on this Lollapalooza Eve. The band was in good spirits and extremely generous with their time, and especially with Hank. Keyboardist Kelly Winrich even went down to the van to get him a Delta Spirit tee.
A couple of days later I grabbed my eight year old Teddy and his buddy Brooks to head down for the Delta Spirit set at Lolla. We managed our way backstage to watch and, right before the band took the stage, the boys met lead singer, Matt Vazquez. Again generous with his time, the boys were blown away when 10 minutes later – he was up on stage in front of a sea of fans. Delta Spirit's set at Lolla was one of the best I've seen all year and one of the better ones I have ever seen at Lollapalooza. They tore through a blistering hour long set that ended with Vazquez melting countless Smart Phones as he dumped a dozen water buckets on the crowd.
So at the end of the weekend, I gained an even greater appreciation for their latest effort, a greater appreciation for them as people, and a greater appreciation of their live act.
Delta Spirit Band Introduction
Exclusive: Delta Spirit – California [Video: YouTube | Vimeo]
Exclusive: Delta Spirit – Time Bomb
Exclusive: Delta Spirit – Tear It Up [Video: YouTube | Vimeo]


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And, by the way, use your car less!
Town Square
Global Warming - act locally
Original post made by Hugh MacMillan, Evergreen Park, on Jun 23, 2006
And, by the way, use your car less!
a resident of College Terrace
on Jun 23, 2006 at 1:11 pm
All of the efforts to conserve are certainly admirable and we are doing what little we can to aid in the effort. My youngest son bought a Prius and we are driving less and trying to make more use of our local businesses.
The trend changing actions however need to be taken by, or at least supported by government and business. Is there any place to go in Palo Alto or the Bay Area to get Bio Fuel? My oldest son lives about 30 miles from Austin Texas. He tells me there are two bio fuel stations in Austin, pumping a blend of 10% diesel and 90% cotton seed oil, at $2.86 per gallon. This with zero emissions, per the station owner.
Is there anyplace in Palo Alto or the Bay Area that is yet selling ethanol? We have a perfect example of how to implement the use fo ethanol in Brazil. All we have to do is pay attention and follow there example. Would the Valley support a sugar cane crop? Are there any venture capitalists or investors willing to set up the first ethanol refinery? Just imagine if we were smart enough to follow Brazil's example and become independent of oil countries and oil companies. Just imagine all the traffic we see on El Camino and coming in and out of town on Page Mill/Oregon Expwy., passing through with zero emissions. All this with a by product of cattle feed. This isn't an unobtainable dream. If Brazil can accomplish this why can't what we like to think of as the most technologically advanced and powerful country in the world. We only have to follow their example.
If our town council would like to take another step in it's admirable green goal it could place solar voltic panels on the roofs of local establishments and use them to power free charging meters for electric vehicles at the curb side. Local businesses could help sponsor these charging stations that would help promote the use of all electric vehicles.
It's gratifying to see we are finally taking our head out of the sand and admitting that fossil fuel burning in the culprit responsible for global warming.
Thank you Al Gore.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jun 30, 2006 at 6:18 am
As I understand it, ethanol from corn is not necessarily an environmental win, but ethanol from sugar cane is. Since sugar cane grows in Hawaii, it would seem easy to grow here. The question is, where's the land for it?
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jun 30, 2006 at 11:59 am
Palo Alto Green signs: The photo of the sign on p. 19 of the 6/21/06 issue of the PA Weekly is my front yard on Middlefield. When I signed up for PA Green, I asked for a sign, thinking that my visible location would be useful. A nice person from the Utility Dept. delivered the sign several months after my request, on a trip out of his way and on his way home from work. Placing signs was no longer a priority. I think that sign placement should be a routine task - perhaps deliveries scheduled once a month or on certain utility routes on a routine basis. The sign-up packet should explain this.
Driving to and from school: Getting a driver's license and driving to school instead of biking or walking is a rite of passage for teens. Perhaps that rite should be outmoded now. Students could be required to buy a parking permit, renewable every quarter, for $50 or $100 each to allow those who want to drive to continue to do so. Before that, campus lunch services should be prepared for more customers, since some kids would no longer drive off campus for lunch, and lunch-time club meetings and activities sheduled.
I notice that more parents drive their children to school than when my children were in school. If parents are worried about safety perhaps there could be neighborhood bike pools or walking pools, where parents and nannies would sign up on a rotating basis to shepherd a group of kids to and from school. Is this something the PTA's or site councils do with a some staff or police help?
For students to walk or bike to school would reduce car trips and therefore emissions.


text: « All Events This event has passed. U16, U15 Academy Practice January 14 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Event Navigation « U13, U12 Boys Practice U19, U17 Academy Practice » Details Date: January 14 Time: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Arrival Time: 4:45 pm Event Group(s):U15 Boys Academy (2005), U16 Boys Pre-Academy (2004) Event Type:Academy Practice Google Map: https://email@example.com,-73.1445243,18z/data=!4m5!1m2!2m1!1sGoooal+Sports,+Stratford,114+HoneySpot+Road,Stratford,CT,06614,USA!3m1!1s0x0000000000000000:0x4a541e9c53911330 Coffee Nearby: http://local.google.com/maps?q=Coffee, Near 1791 Stratford Ave,Stratford,CT,,USA Venue Goooal Sports Field 2 1791 Stratford Ave Stratford, CT 06614 United States Entrance Notes:I-95 North to exit 31. At bottom of ramp turn left and proceed under I-95. Turn left into Town Fair Tire parking lot. rGooal is located at rear of parking lot. From Merritt Parkway take exit 49S (rt. 25) to I -95 north to ext 31 Arrive: 4:45 PM + Google Calendar+ iCal Export


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By joanmarie
- 2 slabs baby back ribs (about 3 pounds)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 bacon slices
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/2 onion
- 3 smashed garlic cloves
- 2 cups ketchup
- 1 cup peach preserves
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard or 1 tablespoon dry mustard
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground paprika
- Special equipment: Kitchen twine
Servings 4
Cooking time 90mins
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Put the ribs on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Stick them in the oven, and let the ribs bake, low and slow for 1 1/2 hours.
Meanwhile, make the sauce. Wrap the bacon around the middle of the thyme sprigs and tie with kitchen twine so you have a nice bundle. Heat a 2-count of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the thyme bundle and cook slowly for 3 to 4 minutes to render the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly, without coloring, for 5 minutes. Add all of the rest of the sauce ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Put some sauce in a separate bowl for basting, reserving the remaining sauce for serving.
Baste the ribs with the sauce and let them continue cooking, basting twice more, for 30 more minutes. When the ribs are cooked, take them out of the oven. You can let them hang out like this until you're ready to eat.
When ready to eat, preheat the broiler for 5 minutes and broil the ribs, basting with the sauce. They should become crisp and charred, about 5 minutes on each side. Pick the onion and garlic out of the sauce and serve with ribs.


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New Delhi, India – Raksha Bandhan is just couple of weeks ahead, making it one of the best times of the year for Rakhi shopping. This is time again for sisters and brothers to start their search for the most amazing gift surprise for dearest brother or sister. This is the time again for many businesses to flourish with Rakhi and Rakhi gift sale. People across the country and worldwide belonging to Indian diaspora are busy in Rakhi shopping, to make the jovial festival memorable forever for brother or sister.
In the same way, Rakhi.in that is one of the reputed and much preferred online gift stores of India has made its latest Rakhi collection 2017 just a month back. After the release of its Rakhi catalogues, the portal has receiving great response of people with huge number of orders for online Rakhi and Rakhi gifts. Being a reliable online Rakhi shopping store, the portal is managing the huge sale with efficient team and delivery services. To Know more about online rakhi delivery in Dubai, Visit here – www.rakhi.in/send-rakhi-to-dubai.html
While a discussion regarding the offered range of Rakhi gifts, the official representative of the portal commented, "The popular ritual of gifting on Raksha Bandhan adds many joyous moments in the auspicious Raksha Bandhan celebration. And, to make the day memorable for everyone, at Rakhi.in, we offer an extensive line of Rakhi gifts that are delightful, heartwarming and impressive. In fact, we have categorized our Rakhi gifts catalogue as 'Rakhi gifts for Brother' and 'Return Rakhi Gifts for Sister' that enables every brother and sister to surprise each other with awesome token of love. Moreover, we have enabled our customers to send Rakhi gifts to India and across the globe with great convenience and ease."
The intricately crafted Rakhis in unique designs and attractive patterns are making the portal, one of the much preferred online stores to shop Rakhi for brother. There are impeccable options for Designer Rakhis, Stone Studded Rakhis, Rudraksha Rakhis, Silver Rakhi, Lumba Rakhis, Kids Rakhis, Pearl Rakhis and much more. Sisters blessed with many brothers can also find awesome selections for Sets of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12 Rakhis. Moreover, there is the facility for Rakhi delivery in India and across the globe to let every sister send her heartiest festive wishes to brother with beautiful Rakhis, despite of being far away from each other."
Apart from stunning Rakhi for brother, the portal also offers fabulous choices for a brother to make from the exclusive collection of Return Rakhi gifts for sister. This range is full of heart winning Rakhi gifting solutions like soft toys, trendy jewellery, chocolates, cosmetic hampers, personalized gifts, coffee mugs, handbags and much more. Also, for sisters there are impressive choices for Rakhi Gifts for Brothers like Rakhi gift combos and Rakhi Gift Hampers too.
About the Company:
Rakhi.in is one of the much preferred stores for online Rakhi shopping. The portal is acclaimed for its beautiful and attractive Rakhi collection as well as Rakhi gifts online. For the brothers and sisters residing far away, the portal offers them the facility to send Rakhi to India and worldwide. This time, the portal is reckoned for attractive gifting hampers like Rakhi with Chocolates, Rakhi with dry fruits, greeting card, sweets and plenty of other attractive choices to shop online. Learn more about the portal on the website.
Media Contact
Company Name: Rakhi.in
Contact Person: Mukesh Kumar
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 8510934032
Address:Mayur Vihar phase-1
City: New Delhi
State: Delhi
Country: India
Website: http://www.rakhi.in/


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Video Game Characters weren't always doing...whatever it is they do. They had to earn their rankings, work for minimum wage, and rise to their current super stardom.
So what was it they were doing before? Readers at Cracked.com have answered this question with never-before-seen (totally not photoshopped) pictures of your favorite characters... before their glory days.
Ezio, Assassin's Creed: Before he was running all over the place killing people, Ezio was upping his stealth points cleaning high-rise buildings. The cleaner the window, the stealthier he had to be...
Amaterasu, Okami: While was still a pup, Ameratsu took the dangerous job painting major highways. The hazard pay was through the ruff.
Megaman, Megaman: The Mega Blaster wasn't always a weapon. It used to be Megaman's ticket to Wimbeldon.
Baraka, Mortal Kombat: Baraka's blades were used for slicing, dicing and chopping... fresh vegetables. And yes, he always made that onion volcano. In fact, he invented it.
Alien Invader, Space Invaders: You'll never look at a another McDonalds hamburger the same. Good thing the Invader worked at Burger King.
Check out the full article at Cracked.com for 14 more "before they were famous" pictures!
20 Video Game Characters Before they were Famous [via Cracked]


text: Carrie and her adopted daughter Lynn had finally found peace within the mansion that had once known only tragedy. But that peace is shattered when an ancient Order of Witch Hunters kidnaps Lynn. Carrie must now join forces with an old foe to locate their secret headquarters and rescue her. Time is running out for Lynn. Can Carrie convince them that her daughter uses magic for good? Find out in Witches' Legacy: Hunter and the Hunted, an exciting hidden-object puzzle adventure. This is a special Collector's Edition release full of exclusive extras you won't find in the standard version. As a bonus, Collector's Edition purchases count toward three stamps on your Monthly Game Club Punch Card! The Collector's Edition includes:


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Funhouse – Generation Generator (Release Year – 1990)
One of the bands from the late '80's early 90's glam metal scene, that has been long forgotten about by most is Hollywood, CA's Funhouse.
The band released one CD, back in 1990, and pretty much vanished shortly thereafter. On Generation Generator, you get 5 studio tracks, and 3 live cuts. I though this was kind of odd mixture, especially for a new band starting out.
Funhouse's sound falls somewhere between Motley Crue, Skid Row and maybe a dash of Ugly Kid Joe. They weren't as good as any of those bands, but they do have a solid sound that I found enjoyable. This disc isn't breaking any new ground musically, and it kind of short, with it clocking in just shy of 33 minutes. 80's and 90's Glam metal fans will probably love this disc. It is a fun disc of partying hair metal tunes, that is still worth a few spins in 2008 and beyond.
Generation Generator has been out of print for quite a while, but you can still snag some copies of this disc from Amazon.com for a reasonable price. If you like what you hear, grab a copy of this disc, before they are all gone.
In 2008, Chris, Marc and Joe E. are playing together in a band called Hazard Los Angeles. Funhouse did a reunion show in 2002. I doubt we have heard the last from this Hollywood band. For more information on Funhouse, check out their myspace page.
Rating:Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. Self-Denial
3. One Funhouse
4. The Preacher
5. One More Time For Love
6. Rocks And Roses
7. Generation Generator
8. Christine In Chains
Funhouse is:
Chris Hazard – Vocals
Marc Vachon – Lead Guitar
Johnny Hill – Drums
Joe E. rhythm – Guitar
Cat – Bass
Funhouse has kept its name.The Funhouse CD that came out circa2013 was called Hazard Los Angeles OR the first Hazard Los Angeles bands first CD is titled Funhouse. I believe its the former.Either way its the same band.
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The worst computer viruses of all time
If you haven't experienced a computer virus yet, just wait -- you probably will.
Fortunately, you missed the real heyday of computer viruses when anti-virus software wasn't very widely used, and virus attacks caused millions of dollars in damages overnight. Today's viruses can still be nightmarish, but for the average user, cleanup is considerably easier than it was just a few years ago, when the only solution in many cases was reformatting your hard drive and starting from scratch (and even that didn't do the trick sometimes).
So join me on a trip down memory lane as we revisit some of the worst viruses of all time and count our blessings that our computers are still up and running despite it all. (Though, please note, "worst" is a matter of considerable debate in the security industry, as the number of infected machines and amount of financial loss is always estimated. If you think another virus was worse than these, please post it in the comments to remind us!)
The worst viruses of all time
Brain, 1986
It all started here: Brain was the first "real" virus ever discovered, back in 1986. Brain didn't really hurt your PC, but it launched the malware industry with a bang and gave bad ideas to over 100,000 virus creators for the next 2 decades.
Michelangelo, 1991
The worst MS-DOS virus ever, Michelangelo attacked the boot sector of your hard drive and any floppy drive inserted into the computer, which caused the virus to spread rapidly. After spreading quietly for months, the virus "activated" on March 6, and promptly started destroying data on tens of thousands of computers.
Melissa, 1999
Technically a worm, Melissa (named after a stripper) collapsed entire email systems by causing computers to send mountains of messages to each other. The author of the virus was eventually caught and sentenced to 20 months in prison.
This was notable for being one of the first viruses to trick users into opening a file, which in this case claimed to be a love letter sent to the recipient. In reality, the file was a VBS script that sent mountains of junk mail and deleted thousands of files. The results were terribly devastating- one estimate holds that 10 percent of all computers were affected, to a cost of $5.5 billion. It remains perhaps the worst worm of all time.
Code Red, 2001
An early "blended threat" attack, Code Red targeted Web servers instead of user machines, defacing websites and later launching denial-of-service attacks on a host of IP addresses, including those of the White House.
Nimda, 2001
Built on Code Red's attack system of finding multiple avenues into machines (email, websites, network connections, and others), Nimda infected both Web servers and user machines. It found paths into computers so effectively that, 22 minutes after it was released, it became the Internet's most widespread virus at the time.
Klez, 2001
An email virus, Klez pioneered spoofing the "From" field in email messages it sent, making it impossible to tell if Bill Gates did or did not really send you that information about getting free money.
Slammer, 2003
Another fast spreader, this worm infected about 75,000 systems in just 10 minutes, slowing the Internet to a crawl (much like Code Red) and shutting down thousands of websites.
MyDoom, 2004
Notable as the fastest-spreading email virus of all time, MyDoom infected computers so they would, in turn, send even more junk mail. In a strange twist, MyDoom was also used to attack the website of SCO Group, a very unpopular company that was suing other companies over its code being used in Linux distributions.
Storm, 2007
The worst recent virus, Storm spread via email spam with a fake attachment and ultimately infected up to 10 million computers, causing them to join its zombie botnet.
Source - Yahoo


text:
Yeah, sorry. I've missed the part where you said you "bought the physical copy of AotI and installed it".
The patch is for the JP ver. of PSU:AotI, the one you can dl from the 1st post if you don't already have it physically (like most people).
That said, there's a problem with the patch on your computer : PsuIlluminusOff.exe shouldn't go away. I know what it do that ("move PsuIlluminusOff.exe BACKUP >nul"), but I don't exactly know why the cracked PsuIlluminusOff.exe from the patch isn't moved to the game root folder when other *.exe (like PSUC.exe or ClemLauncher.exe) are. To patch the game, I advise you to follow steps mentionned in a message above.
And finally, to play online on Clem', (edit : you may need) the Manual Patch 27.03.2017, depending if their launcher/server can update or not the client (my patch already include their 10.01.2017 patch).


text:
More Curly's!
If you live in NYC or you have plans to visit in the near future, go to Curly's—it's the shit!
For more info: Curly's
328 East 14th St.
(Between 1st & 2nd Ave.)
Tel: 212-598-9998
About Sunny (Sunny's Profile)Longtime vegan, hardcore compassionate beauty junkie, serious cake aficionado, and lover of all things floofy and sparkly! If there's something in particular you'd like me to review, drop me a line at email@example.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Google +.
Filed in: Vegan Beauty • vegan restaurants
Comments (6)
Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed
I had the croque madame (tofu, sham & Daiya sammie), & the banana chimichanga; maybe I just ordered all wrong. The ice cream with the chimi was super weird.
Finally had a chance to try Curly's & I wasn't impressed with anything except the fries 🙁


text:
Sandusky Lee's Chrome Wire Shelving is perfect for storing all of your heavy equipment and supplies. This industrial-strength steel shelving unit features four fully adjustable shelves for maximum versatility. Each shelf holds 600 pounds of evenly distributed weight. The open design allows easy accessibility to contents from either side of the unit and permits sprinklers to reach products in case of a fire. An attractive chrome finish adds the final touch to the contemporary design. Adjustable leg levelers keep the shelving even on any floor. This 72"W x 12"D Chrome Wire Shelving Unit from Sandusky Lee is NSF Certified.
Key Features
- Industrial-strength steel shelving
- Each shelf holds up to 600 pounds
- Attractive chrome finish
- Adjustable leg levelers
- Material: Welded steel wire
- Finish: Chrome
- Shelves: 4 - adjustable in 1" increments
- Capacity: 600 pounds per shelf
- Assembly: Easy assembly
- Width: 72"
- Depth: 12"
- Height: 74"
- NSF certified
- Warranty: One year
- Assembly Required: Yes
- Lead Time: Ships within 1 week
- Shipping Method: Ground
- Weight: 66.00 pounds


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Getty Images
On Tuesday, free agent fullback Korey Hall signed with the Cardinals. After a couple of practices in Arizona, Hall decided he doesn't want to be a professional football player anymore.
The 29-year-old Hall, who was a star linebacker at Boise State before moving to fullback in the NFL, told the Idaho Statesman that the wear and tear on his body is more than he can handle anymore.
"I reached a point in my career where my body wasn't holding up and I couldn't play the game the way I wanted to," Hall said. "It was a good run full of great experiences and I have no regrets."
A sixth-round draft pick of the Packers in 2007, Hall played four seasons in Green Bay and earned a Super Bowl ring after the 2010 season. He played last year with the Saints.


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- This event has passed.
College of the Redwoods Queer Student Union
September 15 @ 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every week that begins at 1:15 pm on Tuesday, repeating indefinitely
Meets every Tuesday at 1:15pm in SC 207 (rooms change each semester) at College of the Redwoods during the school year.
Check out the Facebook page.
For information on meetings, contact Michelle Haggerty at email@example.com


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Wednesday, July 9, 2008
One more studio 490 peek...
NO MORE!!! Hey...a girl has to have some secrets & surprises to keep you coming back!
Ok...here's the info on yesterdays card. The 8 studio 490 stamps are...
*The tree
*The large grid...a HUGE background stamp( looks like hardware cloth)
*The screen...HUGE background stamp (4 1/4 x 5 1/2)
*The saying
*The large heart...which can also be used as a background stamp for smaller pieces...see?? Versatile is what I had in mind...I like lots of options...
* the Poinsettia..this was suggested by Michelle! I didn't plan on any Christmas stamps, but I do love this set.
* Have yourself a merry little Christmas ...another HUGE background stamp
*and this one is barely visable...it's stamped on the tree on the right...a HUGE script stamp. It's from an actual journal dated 1914 and it's another flea market find.
Todays peek has...7! Check it out!
And can you see why I'm loving this job? JOB???
This is stamped on Maya Road chipboard (the house & microchip arrow)...inked with Ranger's inks...(Archival Jet Black, vintage photo distress and broken china distress)...grungeboard flowers and studio 490 stamps.
I'm in heaven!
Enjoy your day!
THANKS AGAIN for all the wonderful comments.
11 comments:
- Scrapthat said...
Oh wow! Those are fabulous stamps!! Love the MR CB as well!! Beautiful work as always Wendy!!
- July 9, 2008 at 7:59 AM
- Kathi said...
This is my favorite so far!
Lemme see: a stitch stamp, a ruler stamp, the flower, the sentiment, and dots?
- July 9, 2008 at 9:30 AM
- Linda M. Cain said...
Yep, this is my fav, too. Typically Wendy art!
Linda Cain
- July 9, 2008 at 9:41 AM
- Andi (RrlScrapGal) said...
Super cute little casa!!!! love it...
I want all your background stamps!!!! LOL!
- July 9, 2008 at 10:06 AM
- Jenna Franklin said...
So cute! Can't wait to see it all in person! A week and a half to wait - sigh!
- July 9, 2008 at 10:11 AM
- joanne (spagirl) said...
hi! i found your blog from two peas! congrats on the designs! i love stampers anonymous... and i am about to send your link to my LSS!!! your work is just amazing! love the blog banner too!!
- July 9, 2008 at 10:58 AM
- Erin Glee said...
Very sweet little house, Wendy!
I missed one yesterday...I thought I've seen that large grid before that you call "hardware cloth"...but I did get the large script on the far right tree...I thought the poinsettia was two flowers, stacked.
Todays guesses:
1 ) sentiment
2 )stamped flower in row
3 )lines
4 )ruler/zig-zag
5 )dot pattern
6) cut out flower (you did 2 Grungeboard)
7 )scrabble style letters
Some more really neat stamps~these are GREAT!
- July 9, 2008 at 3:50 PM
- Paper Smooches said...
you are amazing woman....love what I see :)
- July 9, 2008 at 6:45 PM
- Margie Higuchi said...
You're doing a great job, Wendy!!
Can't wait to SEE YOU SOON! LOL!
- July 9, 2008 at 9:35 PM
- D's Paper Studio said...
Only you could make something this beautiful. I can't wait to see the rest. Between you and Tim I'll be broke in the buying! LOL
- July 10, 2008 at 5:46 AM
- Paula said...
Love those wire flowers! My mind is always going a mile a minute when I visit with you. Such inspiration.
- July 11, 2008 at 7:17 AM


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Damn, Not The Scalp Hair: Fights Break Out At The Bad Girls Club Reunion Pt. 2! (Kristen Yanks Out A Grip Of Real Hair From Erica's Roots)
Bad Girls Club Reunion Pt. 2
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text:
The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas often said: Concede parum, nega frequenter, distingue semper (never affirm, seldom deny and always distinguish). This is prudential advice we can and must apply today as we digest what the Synod of Bishops is doing, what is claimed to being done and what will be done afterwards.
First of all, using the via negativa, a Synod is not an Ecumenical Council. Only an Ecumenical Council and/or an ex cathedra papal decree on faith and morals are considered Extraordinary Magisterium.
Synods are considered Ordinary Magisterium just as are papal encyclicals. Their teachings are infallible ONLY when they affirm a teaching on faith and morals that has been consistently and perennially taught by Holy Mother Church over the centuries. Humanae Vitae and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis are ordinary magisterial documents which contain infallible teachings since they reiterate what the Church has always believed and held quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est (everywhere, always and by all).
That being said, the current Synod of Bishops, being an exercise of the ordinary magisterium, would only issue infallible teachings if those teachings were already what the Catholic Church has always taught. They cannot undo or create doctrines.
Non-infallible statements would fall into the category of non-definitive, theological speculations and pastoral prudential judgments. When Pope Benedict XVI was still Cardinal Ratzinger and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) he clarified that synods are by their nature (de facto) advisory and consultative. They are not synonymous with Ecumenical Councils presided over by the Bishop of Rome. Synods are not parliaments, either. They are opportunities for open discussions and sharing of opinions but truth is not defined nor determined by majority rules even if it among successors of the apostles. (Questions about the Structure and Task of the Synod of Bishops', in Joseph Ratzinger, Church, Ecumenism, Politics: New Essays in Ecclesiology. New York: Crossroad, 1988)
Hence, Synodal decrees do not possess the same magisterial authority as do statements from an Ecumenical Council or from formal Papal decrees, either. No need to worry that any doctrines or dogmas are in jeopardy no matter what any particular cardinal or bishop says.
When you read the actual relatio of the Synod as opposed to what the secular press claims the episcopal body said, you see a more than subtle difference. While discussions and dialogues have spanned the gamut of theological opinions (from archconservative traditional to ultra-liberal progressive) most of what has been decided (to be suggested to the Roman Pontiff) has been PASTORAL RESPONSES instead of doctrinal and moral teachings.
The Synod is NOT asking the Holy Father to permit cohabitation, divorce and remarriage without annulment nor for same-sex unions. What it is suggesting is that a pastoral approach be used to encourage people in these relationships to repair their irregular and sinful situations while at the same time providing spiritual encouragement for them to persevere in that journey. In other words, just as we often have divorced and invalidly married couples attend Mass and register in parishes, likewise, we have cohabitating couples do the same. If a homosexual couple were to register and attend a local parish, they would be under the same moral and doctrinal norms as everyone else. The sacraments, especially Holy Eucharist and Matrimony are reserved to those who are canonically free to receive them. It is not a denial of Holy Communion, rather a postponement until such time as the individual person and couple are in full communion with all the Catholic Church's moral and doctrinal teachings and disciplines. Persons in such circumstances, though, deserve mercy and attention whenever and wherever possible. We should be approachable for counsel and advice without any fear of altering Catholic faith and morals.
Pastoral responses are precisely that. They are not a denial nor dilution of dogma. They are medicinal, remedial and therapeutic ways to assist people who have made imprudent or even immoral judgments have a conversion of heart. Just as Our Divine Lord never condoned sin, He likewise loved the sinner. His love was Divine Mercy. That also entailed a call to conversion: "go and sin no more."
The Synod statements found online at the Vatican are significantly different from what most of secular press claim has been said and worse yet, what is being officially taught. They are not magisterial decrees per se. Homosexual marriage and homosexual activity, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, divorce and remarriage without annulment are NOT being tolerated nor approved. The pastoral approach, however, to evangelizing and ministering to these folks, is what is being contemplated. Not carte blanche but something practical and achievable.
Streamlining the annulment process by eliminating or circumventing the automatic appeal to the court of higher instance is a prudential suggestion but one that is not necessarily prudent. No one wants to return to the situation where lower tribunals granted decrees of nullity only to have a higher court overrule them. Instead of emphasizing the end of the process we need to examine the beginning instead.
A better strategy is to BETTER PREPARE couples for Holy Matrimony. Twelve months Pre-Cana is only a starting point. Mentoring with couples in the parish who have a valid and healthy marital relationship is also beneficial. Emphasizing the marriage above and beyond the ceremony is also needed. Too many weddings are elaborately planned but the lifelong covenant of marriage is placed on the back burner. Recent studies have shown a phenomenon where most married couples who split up do so before the fourth or fifth year of marriage. Providing accessible, affordable and practical counseling is a goal every diocese should embrace.
There will always be marginalized, lukewarm and part-time Catholics who attend Mass occasionally or infrequently, who may be in an invalid marriage or living together. Persons with same-sex attraction may have succumbed to the invalid civil union and civil marriage recourse. Pastorally seeing and treating all of them as children of God and as brothers and sisters in Christ in need of moral and spiritual guidance is what the Church is about. Not denying or watering down the faith, but with mercy, encouraging them to amend their lives and rectify their relationships.
The Synod is nothing to fear nor is it something to worry about. Suggestions will be made after discussions have ended. Implementation will be at the discretion of the Pope and how he responds is his prerogative. Prudential judgments are not doctrine or morality but the fullness of authority resides with the Bishop of Rome. We Catholics believe the Holy Spirit will prevent any false teaching to ever be imposed upon the faithful. Only Sacred Scripture has the guarantee of divine inspiration. Human beings, even those who shepherd the church, are not perfect and some can even be influenced by politics and other factors. Synods do not demand an assent of faith nor do they require complete obedience. They do deserve respect and consideration, however, and this can only be done when we the faithful read the actual documents and keep them in their proper context along side all that has already been formally taught and held.


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Brad Pitt was in Germany today reportedly to check out the Documenta. As you know, he's apparently become something of an art collector. Word is he was granted a private viewing. The way he's wearing the sh-t out of that shirt, his gait, the confidence…you want to know why Brad Pitt? Look at him.
Documenta opens on Saturday. It only happens every 5 years. Is he on the phone with an agent about to drop a couple of million dollars on a piece that caught his eye? Did Emily Carr catch his eye? (Yes, I know her work is not available; it's simply a segue.)
We Canadians know Emily Carr. But Emily Carr is finally getting some international play. The Vancouver Art Gallery has loaned out 7 Carr canvasses for display at Documenta. This is a big ass deal. Almost 70 years after her death, her career just might explode. No other historical Canadian painter has had this opportunity. Not even Group of 7. (Source)
Click here to read a great article about how Carr came to be included in Documenta. The cloak and dagger details behind the Documenta process is fascinating.


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Remo Da Rapstar - I Don't Know Where To Go
Video for Remo Da Rapstar "I Don't Know Where To Go" off of A Star Is Born available now.
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The character Caillou is popular with preschoolers around the world thanks to the television series by Cookie Jar Entertainment. The show airs on various stations including PBS and Sprout. In the television series, Caillou is a preschool-aged boy that goes on adventures and learns about the world around him. But I bet some might be surprised to learn that the TV show is based on a series of books by Christine L'Heureux and illustrator Hélène Desputeaux. That's right, in the books he was originally a nine-month-old baby, hence the bald head. His name comes from the French word for pebble. The Caillou series of books were created to help parents and young children discuss troubling situations and talk about their emotions. We own a couple of books in the Caillou Little Dipper series (2-4), and there are a number of different Caillou series collections based on age groups from birth to the age of six.
My kids have not watched the TV show because it does not air on our local PBS station, but they are familiar with Caillou from reading the books. Recently, we received a couple of Caillou toys for review and the toys have been quite popular in our home, especially with my son. Both toys are manufactured by Famosa / id toys.
Caillou Bathtime Vehicles: Caillou and Rexy Toy Boat
Although we have several bath toys, this Caillou Bathtime Toy Boat is currently the favorite bathtime toy in our home. At a price of only $16.99, I'm pretty impressed by how well it is designed and constructed. The green and yellow boat is about 9 inches long and 5 inches wide, floats well in water, and is easy to clean. The boat comes with two removable figures, Caillou and Rexy the dinosaur as well as a red sail. Kids can disassemble and reassemble the Caillou and Rexy figures, and exchange the tops and bottoms to make funny looking Caillou-dino creatures. I love how this interchangeable design feature adds another level of imaginative play to the toy.
However, the thing that is really neat about this boat is that it has a removable wind-up propeller motor that spins. The motor does not require batteries but operates mechanically and it instantaneously mesmerized my son as soon as we opened the package. I took a video of my son playing with the toy for the first time so that you can see how easy it is for a child to turn the motor key. In the video, my son also demonstrates how to reassemble the Caillou figure (he was a little worried that the figure was broken).
The propeller is strong enough that it does propel the boat ever so slightly forward in water, but even if it didn't move the boat, the propeller is still really interesting to watch spin underwater. Because the motor is fairly large, you'll need at least 5-6 inches of deep bathwater when the motor is attached to the boat so it won't touch the bottom of the tub. My son did have difficulty at first putting the motor on the boat because the motor has a notch that must fit in a slot on the bottom of the boat. Also, my daughter has really long hair and sometimes strands will fall off into the water during bathtime. We've noticed a few hairs wrapped around the propeller shaft, but I've been able to remove them so far. It does look like the propeller comes apart for cleaning if you remove five screws, but I haven't needed to take it apart yet so I can't truly verify that you'd be able to fix the propeller if it froze for good.
Even for kids that haven't seen the Caillou show, this is a wonderful, affordable bathtime toy that I would not hesitate to purchase as a gift for a child. As far as bathtime boats go, it's a winner in our book. My kids love playing with the boat both in and out of the water and the propeller mechanism is really fascinating.
Caillou Classic 14.5 inch Doll
The huggable Caillou doll has a soft cloth body and plastic arms, legs and head. It retails for $29.99. Caillou's clothes are all removable, including the socks, shoes and hat. The shirt fastens together at the back with a long strip of velcro and the shorts have an elastic waist, so kids shouldn't have too much difficulty dressing the doll. Children will most likely need to ask for assistance from an adult to place the shoes on the doll.
This is a well-made doll perfect for young children. My son never had much interest in doll play until he saw Caillou. He likes that Caillou is a boy doll and is now willing to play dolls with his sister, though he prefers that his doll does "boy" things like play with cars!
Thanks to Team Mom for this review opportunity and for providing the Caillou toys for my family to review. The toys are available at Toy R Us stores. View my full disclosure statement for more information about my reviews.)


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Bob Lada
- Career Highlights
- Teaches at the Alexander Technique Center of Cambridge, Optimal Performance Year of Austin, Chesapeake Bay Alexander Studies in Greensboro, American Repertory Theater, and Harvard Extension School
- Education
- Alexander Technique certification from Tommy Thompson and Alexander Technique International
In Their Own Words
"Berklee students have a very demanding schedule. Those demands can lead to physical injuries. I'm looking to give them a toolkit that they can pull out while they're performing, while they're practicing, while they're warming up."
"I've been teaching the Alexander Technique for the last 20 years. The Alexander Technique concerns itself with how you do what you do. We try to have you move as easily and freely as possible while making your music. We call that difference 'use': how you use yourself as an instrument. My belief is that the more you perform in a healthy manner, the better your sound will be. I've certainly seen it demonstrated."
"My perspective on this is to take all the energy that you use to keep yourself upright and transform it into something that's available for your creativity. Once you don't need that energy to stay upright—that's where posture and movements come in—that energy's liberated for another use, so you can put it into your musicality."


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IFC's 50 Greatest Opening Title Sequences
Created by lachyas.
Favorited 6 times, disliked 0 times, added to 4 watchlists.
The 50 greatest opening title sequences of all time according to IFC (in 2011).
The original list has been deleted for unknown reasons however it is available using the Way Back Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20120114031631/http://www.ifc.com/fix/2011/02/the-50-greatest-opening-title).
Pssst, want to check out the IFC's 50 Greatest Opening Title Sequences list in our new look?
8 new
Watchmen2009, in 2 top lists Check
19 new
Alien1979, in 28 top lists Check
49 new
Fahrenheit 4511966, in 4 top lists Check
36 new
Dawn of the Dead2004, in 1 top list Check
29 new
Delicatessen1991, in 14 top lists Check
46 new
Lola rennt1998 — a.k.a. Run Lola Run, in 7 top lists Check
Last updated on Mar 12, 2014; source


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Hi, I'm Annalise and I love to bake! Here you'll find recipes, baking tips, and more.
more about me »
4 Baking Tips the Pros KnowSubscribe today and receive this quick guide right to your inbox:
Many recipes call for eggs at room temperature. This is because the egg membranes are less viscous at room temperature and mix into the batter more easily. The difference will not be noted in every recipe, but it can make a big difference in egg-heavy cakes such as angel food and sponge cakes. A quick way to bring them to room temperature is to put them in warm water for about 5 minutes.
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From the series Artificiata II by Manfred Mohr.
Last week, Rhizome received a rather exciting donation from Ryder Ripps and Sean John, and we want to start off this week by saying a big thanks - to everyone who has donated to us this year, not only the rappers. And now, without further ado, here are the latest opportunities and goings-on from Rhizome Announce.
Events - Berlin
Opening Fri: DAM Gallery presents Artificata II, a solo show by artist Manfred Mohr (pictured). The artworks on display are a sequel to the series Artificiata I that was published as a visual artist's book in 1969 by AGENTZIA in Paris. With Artificiata II, the artist visualizes in real-time highly complex algorithms for computer animation on a monitor screen.


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....you're welcome, we aim to please at chez Nicole........lol
You are here: Home ‹ Board index ‹ Jim Carrey Discussion ‹ The Speakeasy
Jims car from Bruce is on Ebay
Jim Carrey discussion on non-movie related topics or topics which doesn't fit anywhere else...
I can picture, first of all, my many nieces and nephews piling into the car and stuffing it like clowns into a phone booth.....arms and legs sticking out in every direction. Every single one of them loves Jim - little wonder, huh?!?! Twenty-one adolescents-to-teenagers-to-young-adults, including my girls. What a group photo that would make...!!
You could examine it for Jim hairs then take the hairs to a lab and make Jim clones for everybody.
I expect you'll have to pay more insurance on it because its a collectible.
"You Cant Stop Me No Matter Who You Are"
if you only knew how much my car insurance already costs...!! 23 points on my license since december......no sh!t. it's not going to be driven very much, if at all. it's taking the place of a one-of-a-kind Cunningham race car that used to be in my sister's garage....so basically it's going to sit there a LOT.
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Mini Mansions | REK002 | Released: 05/06/11
On a break from Queens of the Stone Age, Michael Shuman melded heads and locked arms with longtime friends Tyler Parkford and Zach Dawes in a dusty room in the San Fernando Valley. Here, they began a collaborative séance out of which birthed Mini Mansions in January of 2009. Though their triangle is usually confined to piano, bass, and a cocktail drum kit, the LA-based trio generates a Technicolor spectrum of sound drawn from the baroque, gothic, psychedelic and cinematic realms. Their debut self-titled release curtseys to the past, bows to the present, and foreshadows a progressively more abstract future.
Rekords Rekords' founder Josh Homme describes the band's kaleidoscopic sound as "genuinely psychedelic with huge hooks... After listening to Mini Mansions just once, you won't be able to get it out of your head.'"
REK002CD | Rekords Rekords | Out nowAdd to cart: £10.99
- 01. Vignette # 1
- 02. The Room Outside
- 03. Crime Of The Season
- 04. Monk
- 05. Wunderbars
- 06. Seven Sons
- 07. Vignette # 2
- 08. Kiddie Hypnogogia
- 09. Majik Marker
- 10. Girls
- 11. Vignette # 13
- 12. Thriller Escapade


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Yes, my computer is f*cked (to put it politely). It just wont turn on.
So.. this means no proper blogging until I figure out what is wrong with it and how to fix it :( ... Exactly what I need before the festive season, isn't it?!
Anyways bear with me... I'll be posting piecemeal (not that I don't do that already) and the photos might be a little raw (because I CANT EDIT!) lol
I will however, leave you with a simple yet lovable classic, took the pictures with my iPhone (bless thee)!
3 egg whites
175g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
white wine vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
300 ml Double cream - whipped
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
To decorate:
Any fresh fruit of your choosing - I usually use raspberries (you can use defrosted ones), blueberries, passionfruit, strawberries & even mango for a summer twist!
Preheat oven to 150oC. Line a tray with baking paper. You can choose to draw a circle on the underside of the baking paper if you wish, to guide where the meringue should sit but I usually just do it free hand (i.e. pour the meringue on and shape it however I like :P)
Whip egg whites until foamy (bubble bath like). Then add in half the sugar and whip until at soft peak stage (shaving cream like).
Gradually add in the rest of the sugar, corn flour, vinegar and essence and beat until mixture stands at stiff peaks.
Pour onto the baking paper and shape into a nest, bake for 1 hr and then let cool in the oven.
Whip cream together with the essence and sugar, then spread on top of the cooled meringue nest. Finish with toppings of your choice.
I love pavlova, its so easy and quick to prepare. The crunch of the outside balances beautifully with the fluffy inside and the fruit takes away the sugary guilt of the meringue ;)
p.s. any IT tech heads out there who are willing to gimme a hand.. and maybe even do some charity work hehehe feel free to email me :D


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One of the repercussions of Fuhrländer's insolvency is a delay to the installation of its 3MW FL3000 prototype turbine, originally planned for the end of the year. If it comes to fruition, the FL3000 is designed for low-to-medium wind conditions (IEC class IIA), and will represent a new generation of 3MW volume medium-speed geared wind turbines.
The Fuhrländer turbine features a 120.6-metre rotor diameter and incorporates the patented Larus Compact drive system from engineering consultancy W2E Wind to Energy. This Larus Compact drive is also applied in the proven 2.5MW high-speed FL2500 model, but the new addition is an interesting combination of the Larus with Winergy's HybridDrive.
Larus Compact drive technology comprises a single rotor bearing and a large-diameter shaft coupling that transmits rotor torque only to the flanged gearbox via an annular array of flexible elastomer elements. Rotor bending moments, by contrast, are led directly through the rotor bearing via the machine's main carrier into the tower. This prevents harmful loads from entering into the gearbox.
HybridDrive is a semi-integrated medium-speed design solution incorporating a two-stage planetary gearbox and a permanent magnet generator. Winergy's product development focus was on overall compact design. A flange connection between gearbox and generator enables easy individual component exchange while eliminating the need for an intermediate connecting shaft.
"System integration enables drivetrain length to be shortened by about 35-45% compared to a conventional non-integrated geared drive system of similar power rating," said Matthias Deicke, Winergy's head of electrical systems.
Another focus of the design was to boost operational efficiency under both partial- and peak-load conditions. During a bench testing campaign earlier this year, peak load efficiency of the total system (generator and gearbox) measured over 96%, said Deicke. This ranks among the best values of all existing drivetrain technologies, he added.
HybridDrive has a smaller-sized generator and requires only about 20% of the rare earth element quantity compared to direct-drive systems with similar power rating.
Development of the FL3000 technology was a joint effort between German companies Winergy, Fuhrländer and W2E. Fuhrländer acquired 51% of W2E's share capital in early 2012, but these firms have already co-operated closely for a decade. W2E will operate its own experimental FL3000 wind turbine in Kankel near Rostock, for which a building permission has been given.
W2E's version of Fuhrländer's 2.5MW FL 2500 turbine model is characterised by a flanged three-stage gearbox and a non-integrated doubly-fed induction generator. Another FL3000 project partner is the mechanical/dynamics department of Germany's Rostock University, responsible for specific subtasks in the area of multi-body simulation. The German environment ministry provided financial support due to the innovative nature of the project.
Future benefits
The HybridDrive's compact dimensions can potentially provide several other design-related benefits. New turbine designs like the FL3000 enable a substantially shortened nacelle with reduced weight. This nacelle mass reduction can positively affect tower and foundation mass, as well as costs. Alternatively, designers can opt to move the power electronic converter and transformer into the nacelle instead of the tower foot.
HybridDrive can be combined with either a single rotor bearing or an alternative solution with a main shaft and two bearings. HybridDrive planetary gears can be offered with common roller bearings or journal bearings. The latter combine compact dimensions with high load carrying capacity and a built-in capability to absorb peak loads while offering a long service life.


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Cuomo unveils his 'Sandy Budget'
It sounded as if Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was about to request funds for triumphal arches after Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy introduced him so effusively yesterday as "a great leader, great New Yorker, and outstanding governor."
Cuomo didn't do that, of course, and as he unveiled his 2013-14 executive budget, he put much of the proper emphasis on recovering from the superstorm Sandy disaster less than three months ago.
It was the Sandy Budget in many ways.
Overall, the nearly $143 billion plan he announced marks a more than 5 percent increase over the 2012-13 budget. But that's based on anticipated spikes in federal funding to New York for Sandy recovery, and for implementing national health care.
By itself, the state operating budget inches up only 1.6 percent, officials said.
So Sandy's aftermath will remain major government business, with many twists and turns, for some time.
Take the request for stockpiles of essential equipment -- generators, water tankers, chain saws, light towers and pumps to be kept in strategic places for when the time comes. Stockpiling initiatives don't seem to have been carried out before the Sandy crisis.
Another part of the Cuomo presentation involved rebuilding the battered Ocean Parkway between Jones Beach and Captree State Park, to make the stretch more durable, for a projected $2 billion.
Cuomo also recalled for his Albany audience how he visited a community in Suffolk County in the wake of the storm where houses were destroyed three blocks up from the shore. Yet one house, raised on stilts, survived undamaged, right up against the beach.
The governor cited that as an example of building to mitigate losses, perhaps "paying a little bit more to do it right" rather than needing to rebuild the same structure multiple times.
He also talked about projects that would be "state planned and executed but community-driven. We can't sit here in Albany and tell Oceanside what it needs to do. . . . Every community's needs are a little different."
Cuomo talked about reducing the vulnerability of the gasoline delivery system, acknowledging significant breakdowns after the storm.
He also discussed allocating recovery funds for the aftermath of previous storms Irene and Lee, which had pounded different areas of the state.
"Don't think that because they happened over a year ago these communities are not still suffering," he declared to applause.
A governor's executive budget ends up an opening outline. And, even once the Legislature approves a revised plan for the fiscal year starting April 1, it will all have to be executed.
For now, dozens of items comprise the agenda, from how to evacuate nursing homes to better training for the National Guard in power restoration, search and rescue and heavy equipment operation.
These will take money and management, but also, an attention span, for which government is not always known.


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Sustainable Cities Take Center Stage
This article is part of a series of excerpts from the fifth annual State of Green Business Report, looking at trends in corporate sustainability. Download the free report from GreenBiz.com, and see all of our trends here.
Also, be sure to register for a free webcast taking place on Tuesday, February 7: The State of Green Busines 2012 - The Good News and Bad is hosted by Joel Makower and dives in to all the findings of the report. Click here to register.
While national governments grapple with economic issues and policy gridlocks, pushing sustainability measures to the side, cities are picking up the mantle. Some of the world's largest cities are emerging as laboratories of innovative technologies, business models, and efficiency measures, many of them with salutary environmental and social outcomes. To the extent that the green economy flourishes, it is becoming clearer that it will likely be a bottom-up, grassroots evolution.
It makes sense. Cities are where more than half the global population lives. In developing countries, urban growth is exploding, stretching demands for food, water, energy, jobs, and mobility to the breaking point and beyond. In the developed world, the need for upgrading older infrastructure is driving leaders to invest in new, cleaner and more-efficient technologies.
During 2011, the role of cities in sustainability became increasingly evident. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Bill Clinton merged their respective sustainable city initiatives to create the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of large cities around the world committed to implementing climate-related actions at the local level. The combined group, in turn, formed a partnership with the World Bank to help cities accelerate actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
A sampling of cities' sustainability initiatives, courtesy of C40:
• Seoul plans to retrofit 10,000 buildings by 2030.
• Austin has a zero-waste plan for 2040.
• London aims to have 100,000 electric vehicles on the streets by 2020.
• Buenos Aires is implementing a network of dedicated bus and taxi lanes to improve fuel efficiency.
• Tokyo is introducing higher energyefficiency standards for large urban developments.
• São Paulo plans to reduce the use of fossil fuel on public transportation by 10 percent each year, aiming for 100 percent use of renewable fuels by 2017.
Such ambitious projects build on efforts these and other cities already have made over the past few years to divert waste from landfills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions of municipal operations, harness a growing percentage of power from renewable energy, purchase electric or ultra-efficient vehicles, and leverage their substantial buying power toward purchases of other greener goods and services. Leadership examples abound, from Copenhagen to Curitiba.
Some future-focused cities are helping to usher in a new wave of IT-enabled "mesh" businesses that promote sustainability by facilitating access to transportation services, real estate, tools, and many other things. As mesh companies grow and succeed -- and as cities recognize the benefits they bring in the form of such things as economic development, reduced congestion, and social connectivity -- a few cities are beginning to identify and nurture the conditions that make mesh businesses successful.
Mesh builds on an older but still growing trend to support local economies, especially local growers and producers of food. Farmers markets, community-supported agriculture, food cooperatives, food swaps, slow-food movements, and more are flourishing in both struggling and well-to-do neighborhoods, and they are providing the inspiration for other, non-food-related community enterprises. All of these are helping to reinvigorate cities in both the developed and developing worlds.
The latest developments in information and communications technologies are also spurring cities to create new, smarter infrastructure systems that promote energy and resource efficiency while providing new products and services. For example, the convergence of energy, information, building, and transportation technologies -- which is the basis for a technology framework we've dubbed VERGE -- is spurring the development of smart grids, smart buildings, smart transportation systems, and more. Each of these holds great promise to make cities more livable and efficient -- in a word, sustainable.
The implications for business are implicit, if not explicit: Cities are gaining enormous power to create markets for both local and sustainably produced goods and services, in some cases helping create economies of scale that make these things cheaper and more widely available. Such efforts further support business by making cities more desirable places to live, shop, and work, attracting employees and customers. City leaders recognize this. A survey by the Carbon Disclosure Project and KPMG of leaders of 58 cities around the world, representing 8 percent of global population, found that nearly 8 in 10 believe the physical impacts of climate change directly or indirectly threaten the ability of local businesses to operate successfully. As cities compete to attract companies and a highquality workforce, sustainability will likely be part of their competitive strategies.
One development from the last year may epitomize cities' growing potential as hotbeds of sustainable innovation. The cutting-edge conference TED, which brings together people from the worlds of technology, entertainment, and design to promote "ideas worth spreading," each year grants a TED Prize to a visionary individual. For 2012, it designated "The City 2.0" as its prize winner, for the first time granting the prize to an idea, not an individual. TED's organizers are using the prize to solicit ideas for what The City 2.0 -- "a real-world upgrade tapping into humanity's collective wisdom" -- should be and how to make it a reality.
We'll wait to see what that collective wisdom brings forth. At its best, it will unleash the brightest ideas from around the world for redesigning how people live, work, play, travel, and shop in more sustainable ways.
City photo via Shutterstock.